Saturday, December 31, 2016

Does a Never Trumper Need to Be Forgiven?

The question leads to introspection, although one feels he has nothing to apologize for.

‘I forgive you.”

I’ve lost count of how many people have told me that since Election Day. Of course, the number pales in comparison with the legions who’ve told me I was “wrong about everything” this year and that the election of Donald Trump will spell the end of my relevance, my career, and, in a few trollish instances, my life. But it’s the unsolicited forgiveness that stings more.

Jonah Goldberg

My position as a committed “Never Trump” (and “Never Hillary”) conservative in the primaries and general election earned the disappointment and wrath of a great many folks on the right, from longtime readers to longtime friends. Although I still feel in my bones that I have nothing to apologize for, it does seem to me that forgiveness, solicited or otherwise, should elicit some introspection.

Are my critics — either the forgiving ones or the menacing ones — right about me? Just how wrong was I?

I did get the election wrong. Although there were occasions when I wrote that Trump had a shot, certainly at the end I was convinced that he’d lose.

And yet, defensive though it may sound, I think the claim that I got “everything wrong” in 2016 reveals more about my detractors than about me. No doubt I got much wrong this year (this is true of every year ending in a number divisible by 1), but the only sense in which one could plausibly claim I got everything wrong is if Donald Trump is your everything. Indeed, the bulk of those shouting that I got “everything wrong” seem to be the “Trump can do no wrong” crowd as well.